TEFSE 2007 - Call for Papers
Addressing the Grand Challenges for Traceability
Requirements traceability provides critical support for software engineers as they develop and maintain software systems. Traceability can, for example, help an analyst to ensure that a high level requirement has been refined into lower level design components, built into the executable system, and tested effectively. Traceability also helps analysts to effectively understand, manage, and control changes as they are introduced. Numerous standards such as IEEE Standard 830- 1998, CMMI, and ISO 9001 mandate traceability practices as an essential element of the software development life cycle. Unfortunately, practicing traceability is much harder than it would appear and many organizations fail to implement effective traceability practices which they perceive to be costly and unattainable.
During the summer of 2006, members of the traceability community from academia, industry, and government met to identify and define the Grand Challenges of Traceability. The challenges are published at http://www.traceabilitycenter.org/downloads/documents/GrandChallenges, and identify a number of critical research areas such as
- link recovery and automated methods,
- link evolution,
- link semantics,
- visualization,
- traceability practices and metamodels,
- training and certification,
- usability issues,
- tracing across heterogeneous environments,
- tracing across product lines.
Center of Excellence for Traceability
This symposium is part of a series of events organized by the Center of Excellence for Traceability. The Center is being developed as a partnership of government agencies, businesses, and research institutions with the objective to facilitate, sponsor, and infuse traceability research and with a focus on the development of practical solutions. The inaugural year of the Center is currently being funded by NASAs Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Facility, as part of the facility-supported IV&V research.
Paper Submission
We invite submissions of high quality papers to the symposium that address the Grand Challenges in Traceability in the following categories:
Research papers present traceability solutions which are novel or significantly improve existing solutions. (8-10 pages)
Position papers describe early work addressing a specific traceability problem or propose new ideas. (4-6 pages)
Industrial practice and experience papers present problems or challenges encountered in practice, relate success and failure stories, or report on industrial practice. The focus is on 'what' and on lessons learned, not on an in-depth analysis of 'why.' (4-10 pages)
Papers must describe original work not submitted or presented at other forums. Accepted papers will be published in an ACM online digital library and in a bound conference proceedings. Papers must be submitted electronically following ACM SIG Proceedings guidelines.
Important Dates
| Papers due (all categories): | January 12, 2007 |
| Notification of acceptance: | February 6, 2007 |
| Camera Ready Copies: | March 5, 2007 |
| Symposium: | March 22-23, 2007 |
Contact Us
Dr. Jane Hayes, hayes@cs.uky.edu
Dr. Alex Dekhtyar, dekhtyar@cs.uky.edu
Contact Webmaster: Jody Larsen webmaster@traceabilitycenter.org
Dr. Jane Hayes: We corresponded a few months ago about the viability of managing requirements (including their traceability) within the design and construction industry. After reading some of literature within the Center of Excellence in Traceability (CET), your center seemed primarily focused on the managing of requirements (including traceability) within the software engineering area. Managing requirements within the software engineering industry is relatively common and a very useful practice.
I have found no application of requirements management/traceability within the construction industry, e.g., building bridges, building homes, constructing the transportation infrastructure, other, and have corresponded with different associations - professional organizations about the practice.
In a recent exchange with management of the American Society of Quality, particularly, within their Design & Construction Division, they have agreed to take an action item to study the viability of requirements management/traceability, a practice well-founded and used within the software engineering discipline, and determine its viability within the design and construction industry.
When we last communicated, the CET seemed very much interested in exploring the requirement management/traceability discipline within the design & construction industry....but perhaps its beyond the current scope of the center's interest.
I would appreciate your feedback in this area and whether CET would be available to explore this discipline within the design and construction industry.
Thank you again.
Ed Gardner
Cell: 786-566-9746
e-mail: egardnr@miamidade.gov